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Pegorer, Francesca

University of British Columbia

This dissertation is based on two years of fieldwork that I conducted in Berlin, Germany, in 2020-2022. I analyze the sense of place experienced by people who have recently moved to Berlin from outside of Europe, within the frame of the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns. I examine the constellation of atmospheres that emerges from place-bound emotions, collective sensibilities and bodily sensations (from the terrain to the weather) as these people navigate the city, driven by a desire to make a home there. I show how they navigate the ebbs and flows between the effort to create a sense of belonging and the marginalization and exclusion they feel in their interactions with German white society and with German institutions. Their refusal to recognize an identity as ‘migrants’ is particularly poignant, as the latter has become a central device to produce and reproduce the permanent otherness of racialized newcomers. The presence of the pandemic serves to reveal and bring into focus these underlying tensions, particularly as the eeriness brought upon by the various lockdowns mirrors the alienation they often feel. What emerges then is a complex experience of trying to make sense of the contrast between their attachment to the city, particularly felt in places that are atmospherically dense and engaging, and the sense of finding themselves at the eye of a storm that is raging all around them.

Text

2024-06-26

Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

http://hdl.handle.net/2429/88518

Anthropology

University of British Columbia

UBCV

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/